


Giving Gifts

by lorannah



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-18
Updated: 2009-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-04 13:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorannah/pseuds/lorannah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Valentine's Day comes to Camelot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giving Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Download link: http://www.box.net/shared/27ucurfuab

 

Arthur was thinking about his boots. They were new. New and red. A gift from one of the girls who always seemed to be lingering around the court uselessly. He hadn’t decided whether he liked them or not yet.

It was a relationship in progress.

Merlin was doing something noisy… hopefully something that involved leaving his room in a reasonable state for once. Though that seemed unlikely. Whatever it was it was frustratingly distracting.

“There’s a present for you in the cupboard,” he told him, hoping it would stop the noise at least for a while so he could survey the boots in peace.

There was a momentary pause

“Really?” Merlin’s voice was amused, suppressing a laugh. “Like a Valentine’s present?”

Arthur looked up from his boots. Horrified.

“What? It’s just shirts, old shirts… my old shirts… You smell.”

It was Valentine’s Day? Already? Again? He’d hoped that after last year’s debacle everyone would, wisely, forget about the stupid day.

Even thinking about last year was annoying.

The knights had behaved ridiculously. Owain and Cai had even started a fight over some girl or other… by the time it was finished five of the knights had been left bloody, bruised and useless for much of the next week. Though, Arthur had to admit, that was mostly because he’d lost his temper with the whole thing.

And the girls had been even worse.

He eyed the boots again with a mixture of suspicion and annoyance. He had almost been about to decide he liked them.

He threw them aside with a grunt of disgust.

Across the room Merlin had found the shirts and pulling his own off, pulled one of Arthur’s on instead, with a grin. It was a deep rich red and, surprisingly, didn’t look too ridiculous on him. A bit large but…

“You could just say it…” Merlin interrupted the thought with a wicked look.

“Don’t…” Arthur warned him, “I will put you in the stocks.”

Merlin threw himself melodramatically to his knees at Arthur’s feet, clutching his hand.

“Be mine, Valentine,”

“I’m going to kill you,” Arthur told him shaking his hands away, “I don’t even have to come up with an excuse… it could be my gift to Camelot.”

Merlin was laughing.

“They’d thank me. There’d be a parade and a big feast. The kingdom would rejoice for days…”

* * * * *

Merlin hesitated outside Morgana’s room and then knocked.

“Come in,” Morgana called after a moment, sounding uncharacteristically flustered.

She was stood in front of her table, a guilty expression on her face. Her hair, Merlin noticed, was slightly damp and the bottom of her dress, a beautiful green one, was muddy and slightly torn.

As she saw Merlin, she smiled, relieved and moved aside, revealing her table, strewn with wildflowers.

“I thought you were Gwen,” she told him starting to sort the flowers from the weeds. “How are you, Merlin?”

“Good,” he told her. “I was asked to bring you a gift. A Valentines.”

She glanced at him curiously and smiled.

“Really? From Arthur?”

He paused for a moment, saying it was from Arthur had a certain amusing temptation but also, more importantly, the tendency to end in disaster.

“No, I’m afraid Arthur’s reserved all his Valentine’s for me this year,” he told her with a grin. “It’s… errr… from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. A secret admirer.”

His fingers closed around the pendent in his pocket. He’d found the charm in Gaius’ book a few weeks before. It was supposed to disguise magic, make it more difficult to notice – he’d been wearing his, woven intricately around a button, hidden in the fold of his jacket ever since.

It seemed to work.

And then it had just seemed right to make one for Morgana. A small way to protect her. Keep her safe.

He’d spent a week trying to find a way to give it to her, until Gwen had explained Valentine’s Day to him and he’d realised that it would be the perfect opportunity.

As he pulled it out, Morgana’s eyes lit up.

“It’s beautiful,” she said taking it from him. “Tell my admirer I adore it.”

* * * * *

Morgana had decided she should give someone a Valentine. Even if it was silly and still a little new and everyone was doing it. She’d spent the last three years worrying that she wouldn’t receive one and, even though each year she’d had several, she’d decided enough was enough.

This year was different. She was different and she’d be damned if she would wait around for a man anymore, it was time for a woman to take control and do it properly. Besides, why should the boys have all the fun?

Choosing who her Valentine should be had turned out to be more difficult.

One of the knights had seemed a good idea, but she’d tried in the past to have crushes on them, really tried hard and it had never worked. She had come close with Owain, but only after he had agreed to fight the Dark Knight and looked set to die which, she suspected, probably said worrying things about her.

And she certainly wasn’t going to give a gift to Arthur. She knew he wouldn’t give one to her and he was going to have far too many women laying presents, and themselves, at his feet as it was.

He was bound to be unbearable for the next few weeks about the whole thing. Especially if he got more Valentines than she did.

In the end she’d realised that there was only one person she really wanted to give a Valentine to…

So she’d spent most of the morning dragging herself through bedraggled fields trying to find the right flowers.

In the end the bouquet was a little pathetic but Gwen’s face broke into a genuine warm smile as Morgana took her arm and pressed them into her hand.

It was a long time since she had seen that smile. Not since before Gwen’s father had died.

Morgana pressed a kiss gently to her cheek.

“I don’t say it enough, but I do appreciate it. Thank you.”

* * * * *

Gwen slipped, secretively, into the armoury and pulled Arthur’s sword into the moonlight.

She sat with it for a moment, resting it between both hands, feeling out its weight. And tried not to wonder what had happened to her father’s best sword, the one she had given Merlin.

Setting the sword aside for a moment, she picked up the small bundle she had brought with her and reverentially unwrapped it. She hadn’t touched her father’s tools since she had packed them away, just after…

But things were better, the ache had softened a little, she had felt happy today and last week when Arthur had fought she had noticed his sword was damaged and she’d wanted to fix it.

The armourer wasn’t doing his work properly and although Arthur could keep it sharp and Merlin could keep it shining; neither knew how to mend it.

And mending things was something she was good at. Even herself, no matter how long it took.

Lifting Arthur’s sword, she set silently to work, ready for a long night.

**Author's Note:**

> My policy on permissions for use of my work is that you don't in fact need my permission to make art, record podfic, remix, critique, translate, save, share or otherwise reuse and interact with anything I've done. I'd love it if you'd share a link with me when you're done.
> 
> Any comments are also welcome – I'd love to hear what worked for you and (truly) what didn't or about those really obvious typos that my mind can't see anymore. If you don't want to comment publicly, feel free to e-mail me. Everything and anything will be loved and cherished.


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